Urza's Apprentice's Time to Shine

Commander / EDH Artifact Budget Casual Reanimator Value Engine WUB (Esper)

Redace878

Land (38)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Bad River
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Contaminated Aquifer
• 1x Darkwater Catacombs
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flood Plain
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Idyllic Beachfront
• 5x Island
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Obscura Storefront
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 5x Plains
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Skycloud Expanse
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Sunlit Marsh
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Temple of Enlightenment
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Freed from the Real
• 1x Hidden Stockpile
• 1x Intruder Alarm
• 1x Mirrodin Besieged
• 1x Pemmin's Aura
• 1x Thopter Spy Network

Creature (21)

• 1x Ancient Stone Idol
• 1x Digsite Engineer
• 1x Etherium Sculptor
• 1x Faerie Artisans
• 1x Foundry Inspector
• 1x Marionette Master
• 1x Metalwork Colossus
• 1x Mondrak, Glory Dominus
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Myr Battlesphere
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Sai, Master Thopterist
• 1x Sliversmith
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Thassa's Oracle
• 1x Thought Monitor
• 1x Triplicate Titan
• 1x Urza, Chief Artificer
• 1x Urza, Powerstone Prodigy
• 1x Vizier of Tumbling Sands
• 1x Wernog, Rider's Chaplain

Artifact (12)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chromatic Orrery
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Genesis Chamber
• 1x Illusionist's Bracers
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Skyclave Relic
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x The Underworld Cookbook
• 1x Thopter Shop
• 1x Thought Vessel

Commander (1)

Instant (13)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Dispatch
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Faithful Mending
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Rootborn Defenses
• 1x Stern Lesson
• 1x Thirst for Knowledge
• 1x Void Rend

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Careful Study
• 1x Clowning Around
• 1x Damn
• 1x Day of Judgment
• 1x Servo Exhibition
• 1x Sram's Expertise
• 1x Thoughtcast
• 1x Wrath of God

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Maybeboard

Artifact (8)

• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Heartstone
• 1x Helm of the Host
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Staff of Nin
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir
• 1x Wondrous Crucible

Creature (5)

• 1x Crashing Drawbridge
• 1x Inspired Sphinx
• 1x Loran of the Third Path
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Sicarian Infiltrator

Instant (1)

• 1x Urza's Command

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Biotransference

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Kaya, Geist Hunter

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Name is from episode 497 of The Command Zone.

This is far from an optimized deck, and I would hesitate to even call it a 75% deck -- mostly my goal is to have fun and make janky splashy plays, not to win as fast as possible. That's why I've tagged it as Casual. That being said, I still would like your recommendations on how to improve it!

I try to keep all cards under $10, so obvious exclusions like Darksteel Forge are for budget. Any expensive cards in this decklist are there because I already own them.

The Game Plan: As early as possible, get Tawnos on the field, make some artifact tokens, and pitch some big creatures or artifacts to the yard. Then we reanimate and make as many copies of them as possible, utilizing untap effects and token doublers to maximize profits. Close out the game by swinging with an army of beefy clones (my personal favorite) or with infinite combos (Marionette Master or Thoracle will be the win-cons).

Infinite Combos

The only combos in this deck are based off Tawnos's first ability + an untapper. I intentionally didn't include Time Sieve + Thopter Assembly as I really only like to use infinite combos to end long painful games.

This means the combos consist of:

(an artifact token copy of) Chromatic Orrery OR Peregrine Drake

+

Freed from the Real OR Pemmin's Aura OR Intruder Alarm

Using Tawnos's first ability will generate you i̶n̶f̶i̶n̶i̶t̶e̶ an arbitrarily large amount of mana, and also mill out your library. If you used Peregrine Drake, it'll also make infinite tokens. The easiest thing to do from here is reanimate Thoracle, but if that doesn't work out, you can reanimate Marionette Master and generate/sacrifice enough tokens to win.

Random Thoughts on Some Cards

The first card you reanimate with Tawnos's second ability, if possible, should be a token generator. This will ensure you don't run out of things to sacrifice later on. Marionette Master, Myr Battlesphere, and Wernog, Rider's Chaplain all work for this.

Wernog is fun because he's a legendary with a LTB trigger. This means whenever you make a second copy of him, he immediately dies so you get his ability twice.

Enlightened Tutor can grab any puzzle piece you're missing: draw, discard, token makers, reanimate targets, etc.. If you already have your engine set up, I would grab Anointed Procession or a combo piece if you want to finish the game.

Same with Entomb. Your first priority is to set up the token-discard-sac-reanimate engine, other than that I would grab Mondrak, Glory Dominus or Chromatic Orrery.

Date added	1 year
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 37 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 21 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.37
Tokens	Clown Robot 1/1 W, Clue, Construct 0/0 C, Construct 6/12 C, Copy Clone, Elephant 3/3 G, Food, Golem 3/3 C w/ Flying, Golem 3/3 C w/ Trample, Golem 3/3 C w/ Vigilance, Metallic Sliver 1/1 C, Myr 1/1 C, Powerstone, Servo 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 C